PKN ORLEN welcomes the decision of the European Commission regarding acquisition of Unipetrol
On April 20, 2005 Polski Koncern Naftowy ORLEN S.A., Central Europe’s largest downstream oil company, received the notification from the European Commission Directorate General for Competition, informing about approval of the purchase of 62,99% of Unipetrol a.s. shares.
The decision of European Commission means fulfilling the last of suspending conditions - achieving the acceptance of the right anti-monopoly office – reserved in the conditional agreement to purchase shares in Unipetrol signed on June 4, 2004 between the National Property Fund of the Czech Republic and PKN ORLEN SA.
As all of the conditions have been fulfilled and approvals granted, the Management Board of PKN ORLEN S.A. wants to underline that it is focused to finalize the transaction as soon as possible, taking into account the importance for both PKN ORLEN S.A and the Czech government. PKN ORLEN S.A. plans to finance the transaction with its own resources and existing debt facilities..
- We are very satisfied that the process of fulfilling all suspending conditions has finished. Last months it was a time of intensive work preparing for integration which we are planning to start after acquisition of Unipetrol Holding shares - says Igor Chalupec, President of PKN ORLEN SA.
